At The Sanctuary, Rick offers Negan to surrender under the agreement that all civilians would be left unharmed but his gang, himself included, would be executed. Negan plays with the notion about having a war but reveals his "wildcard", Gregory. Gregory pledges the Hilltop's allegiance to the Saviors in a turn of events but backfires as only eight men from Rick's militia leave.

Negan becomes furious with this and kicks Gregory off of the roof they are standing on before admitting that he had hoped that his move would have saved more lives. Rick offers him one last chance to surrender, but Negan declines. Just then, one of his Saviors shoots and kills two of Rick's men, the battle begins and Richard and the others take cover behind their vehicles and return fire. Several of the Savior snipers are killed before Rick and his militia retreat as a massive herd arrives, having been attracted to the sound Rick and his army caused.

Later, Richard and the other survivors celebrate their victory having trapped Negan and his Saviors at his base. Their celebration is cut short as Rick appears along the horizon and announces that their is no time to celebrate and that the war is only beginning.

Rick discusses the plan further with the leaders of the communities and several of his closest allies before announcing the plan to his coalition. He tells the group that he is sending several trusted people back to Alexandria in case they are attacked by Negan, being the first place to be assaulted once Negan is freed and reveals that they are going to go out and attack several major outposts, indicated by a trusted resource. He details this plan further by stating that Ezekiel will be leading his people against one near outpost while Rick, Paul, and the remaining soldiers go with them to attack the other.

The next day, during the assault on the outposts, Ezekiel and his men approach the designated outpost and initially believe to be getting the drop on them. He soon realizes that the Saviors inside were waiting for them to get closer and are quickly mowed down. Ezekiel and his people put up a good fight, but soon things take a turn for the worse. Many of the Kingdom survivors are killed and Richard is shot in the chest and soon dies in the arms of Ezekiel. The remaining survivors retreat in different directions and Ezekiel soon follows, nearly being captured. Ezekiel recounts this to Michonne back at Alexandria and regrets not having done enough to save his men, and Shiva.

Death

Killed By

Unnamed Saviors

While unknown how it happened, Richard is shown being held by Ezekiel, bleeding profusely. Richard then soon dies from his wounds.

Relationships

Ezekiel and Richard were shown to be close. Ezekiel trusted him to be his head of security. Nothing about their past is currently known. When Richard gets shot, Ezekiel cries over his body, telling him everything will be okay, before he dies. It is revealed in Issue 119, that Richard meant a lot to Ezekiel. Ezekiel described him as his "eyes and ears" within the Kingdom.